It’s was a mere 13-point triumph, in the electrified Syracuse-adjacent swamps of Jersey.

So what’s USC’s excuse this time?

Or more to the point – what reasons will pollsters have this week in justifying why, after a 2-0 start, these Trojans could and/or should be dropped again, this time to No. 3, despite racking up plenty of off-Broadway- reviewable personal stats?

Please tell us the discussion in the college football world isn’t reverting back to thosehalcyon days of daydreaming about an Alabama-LSU rematch again.

If all you saw was the 20-second little highlight package from some network halftime show, it’ll look as if USC fulfilled the required big-play style points – six Matt Barkley TD tosses, more star-studded sprint-routes from Marqise Lee and Robert Woods, and a couple picks by Dion Bailey.

If you squirmed through the whole thing, including a halftime delay more frightening than Ashlee Simpson’s 2005 Orange Bowl performance, you’d know it was far from a thundering statement.

The dark skies converged, the rain poured, and Barkley actually got sacked? And threw a pick? That was before the shrink-wrapped O-line saw its anchor man, Khaled Holmes, carted off the field.

More banged-up DEs, sophomoric penalties, backup kickers scrambling into motion and an anti-climactic flight to the finish.

‘Bama can thump its chest about rolling over Western Kentucky (even thought it couldn’t cover the 38-point spread). LSU can curl its tail after taking care of Washington (even though the Huskies actually had a 3-0 lead in that one).

At least USC’s players got some well-earned Orange slices for the plane ride home, and could sleep easier knowing they don’t have a contest at Oregon State on their schedule.

==There’s an escape clause written into the Pac-12 bylaws that allow for a graceful golden handshake for Utah and Colorado in the near future, correct?

==How far up the polls does Sacramento State go now?

==The school may have netted $860,000 for allowing itself to be publicly sacrificed by a combined 141-0 against Oklahoma State and Florida State in consecutive weeks – even if it was only seven quarters long – but now that it’s over, does Savannah State’s football program really feel like a million bucks?

==Did the San Francisco Giants think they were muy macho slick breaking out their “Gigantes” uniforms Saturday? Did the Saintly Franciscans not realize that the Dodgers’ unis were also in Spanish: “Los Angeles?”

==When is it deemed too late to suggest moving Andre Ethier to the more logical No. 2 spot in the Dodgers’ lineup, instead of watching him flounder around in at No. 6, surely making him grouse more than usual out of the public’s eye that he’s being overlooked in the reconstruction of the heart of this lineup that’s been going sideways?

==As far as having your fill of former Philadelphia Phillies and ex-Boston Red Sox, doesn’t it look as if Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro constitute a far more productive haul for the Giants than Shane Victorino, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett have to date for the Dodgers?

==How does Ryan Braun not expect a repeat as the National League MVP with numbers almost exactly as they were a year ago?

==No one else in D.C. has the power to veto the Nationals’ decision to shut down Steven Strasburg? Isn’t there a “best interest of baseball” clause to invoke?

==How insane is the stat keeping at the Elias Sports Bureau? We know that Strasburg delivered 2,607 pitches this season – 48th-most in the majors. Most, logically, were fastballs. Because the number of curveball and sliders he delivered (495) ranked just 89th in the bigs.

==How does a watered-down Roger Clemens combining to throw eight scoreless innings for the Sugar Land Express (or whatever they’re calling it) equate to earning a start for the Houston Astros down the stretch? If it allows him to reset his Hall of Fame eligibility clock, can you blame him for being that selfish again?

==Why do we have to apologize for being a little curious as to how and when Tim Tebow will make his debut for the New York Jets this morning? And why should we have to search “NFL Sunday Ticket” for the privilege?

CBS has decided to give L.A., as well as about half the country, access to the New England- Tennessee contest at 10 a.m. At the same time, the Buffalo-N.Y. Jets game goes to greater New York, New Jersey, half of Pennsylvania and – surprise – Denver.

In Week 2, CBS has the N.Y. Jets again, this time at Pittsburgh, but should we be expecting a force-fed delivery of the Tennessee-San Diego game at 1:25 p.m. instead?

==When the Kings eventually start the 2012-13 NHL season, the plan is to hang their freshly pressed Stanley Cup banner from the Staples Center rafters, as well as relocate their retired numbers and other conference flags from that upper-section wall.

It’s more along the lines of the tradition set by other NHL championship teams.

Plus, in the grand scheme, doesn’t it really serve to open up the space where the Clippers can start plans for all the banners and numbers it will eventually collect and put on display next to all that outdated Lakers’ stuff?

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